My works on paper in StreamLines are improvisatory and unplanned, created in the moment of painting. I begin work and began these works with no ideas other than the potential process of discovery through painting—and through this process of discovery arriving at an image. I view painting as a form of meditation, both from the position as a maker of paintings and as a viewer of paintings. I do not have a plan when working. I begin somewhere and I end up somewhere else. Somewhere unexpected. To quote composer John Cage “Before she (Gita Sarabhai) returned to India, I learned from her the traditional reason for making a piece of music in India: "to quiet the mind thus making it susceptible to divine influences." I have also seen the quote written as “The purpose of music is to quiet and sober the mind, making it susceptible to divine influences.” I’m not certain which quote is correct. Regardless, the message is similar and is inspirational in my conceptualization of art. This “quieting the mind” extends beyond the purpose of music and applies to all creative activity. As a form of meditation, painting is the physical gesture of tracing a line in paint. It soothes my mind and allows a clear mental space in which inspiration becomes possible. I trust in the meditative process. While I am painting, shapes emerge, lines emerge, spaces emerge, and even words emerge. I don’t exactly know what the words “half sound” mean. The image “half sound” remains for me a mental object of possibility, potentially “a sound truncated (a sound cut off in sounding)” or “a sound cut in half (a sound still sounding but half present)” or any of a number of possible definitions or potentials. Its plenitude of meaning allows me to continue to imagine what it might be.